Best Adventure Anime of 1982

Johnson, a lonely salaryman, laments his dull existence, longing for a life of travel and excitement. However, after a hallucinatory experience, he recalls striking memories of a legendary space pirate called Cobra. With the Psychogun attached to his left arm, Cobra once roamed the galaxy alongside his partner Lady Armaroid. Together they formed a notorious team feared by law enforcement and despised by the Pirate Guild—an alliance of the galaxy's most powerful pirates. Back on Earth, a casino encounter changes Johnson's fate. His winnings bring him before the establishment's manager—Pirate Guild boss Vaiken, whom he saw defeated by Cobra in his dream. Recognizing Johnson as Cobra in disguise, Vaiken tries to exact revenge. Instead, he triggers the Psychogun hidden under Johnson's left arm, unlocking his suppressed memories and alerting Lady Armaroid. After defeating Vaiken once more and with his memories restored, Cobra emerges from hiding to stop the Pirate Guild's interstellar mafia. He and Lady Armaroid journey across space, continuing their high-stakes adventure while helping those wronged by Guild members.

In 1532, twelve-year-old Esteban, an orphan from Barcelona, possesses a unique ability to command the Sun to shine, earning him the title "Child of the Sun." After his adoptive father passes away, Esteban discovers that he was saved from a sinking ship as an infant. The medallion he has always worn points to a location in the New World, possibly linked to the legendary Cities of Gold. Determined to uncover his origins and find his parents, Esteban sets sail from Spain. On his journey, he encounters Zia, an Inca girl taken from her people years earlier, who wears an identical medallion. They are later joined by Tao, a young castaway from the Galapagos and the final heir to the Empire of Heva, which is said to have created the Cities of Gold. Guided by Coyolite, the radiant star depicted on their medallions, the three children explore the uncharted New World in search of the Cities of Gold, convinced that this path will lead them to their missing parents.

Patarillo! takes place in a world mostly identical to our own, except for one major difference. The manga that inspired the series belongs to a popular genre aimed at adolescent Japanese girls, one that prominently features gay men and beautiful teenage boys known as bishounen. Most of the story unfolds in Marinera, a country of eternal spring located somewhere in the South Seas. Marinera is a major diamond producer, and these gems are the main source of conflict in the anime. They come from one of the world's most productive mines, which belongs to the boy-king Patarillo himself—a ruler who is short in stature but generously endowed in other respects. The International Diamond Syndicate, a vast semi-criminal organization and secret society bent on controlling the global diamond supply, desperately wants that mine and will go to any lengths to acquire it. In the early episodes, they dispatch several bishounen assassins to kill Patarillo, forcing the king to hire a bodyguard: the English MI6 agent Major Jack Bancoran, also known as the "Bishounen-Killer." This nickname does not mean he murders bishounen in cold blood; rather, it refers to the fact that no male under seventeen can resist his sexual allure. To Bancoran's eternal disgust, this includes Patarillo himself. The action frequently shifts between Marinera and MI6 headquarters in London (which seems to be a mere two-hour flight from the South Seas) or Bancoran's palatial condominium in London's suburbs. (MI6 headquarters strongly resembles Fritz Lang's Metropolis, while Jack's "apartment" looks a lot like Randolph Hearst's mansion.) The story also ventures into the past, the future, and even outer space—Patarillo evidently gets around.

Following the events of Arcadia of My Youth, Captain Harlock and his crew aboard the spaceship Arcadia were exiled from Earth. The planet, along with countless others across the galaxy, had fallen under the control of the Illumidus—a race of destructive humanoids that ravage, enslave, or annihilate nearly every habitable world they encounter. In Endless Orbit SSX, Harlock fights against the Illumidus while seeking a legendary "Planet of Peace," a place where all the peoples of the universe could exist freely and without conflict.

The sequel to Mitsubachi Maya no Bouken.

Lucy's family relocates from England to Australia with the aim of managing a large farm. Starting over proves to be a series of setbacks. Their days of hardship and despair persist until they at last succeed in obtaining their farmland. Nevertheless, Lucy and her sisters delight in many fresh experiences, like encountering exotic animals and meeting Aboriginal people and other new individuals.

In the original Japanese broadcast, Dairugger XV functioned solely as an exploration robot and a designated peacekeeping force. Earth enjoys an era of prosperity, and the president of the Terran League (called the "Galaxy Alliance" in Voltron) initiates a mission to explore beyond the galaxy. Shortly after the exploration begins, the starship Rugger-Guard is attacked by a vessel from the Galbeston Empire. To protect Earth, the super robot Dairugger is deployed. By a twist of fate, the crew must assist the people of Galbeston in finding a new planet before their own explodes, while also liberating them from their tyrannical Emperor. Unlike the U.S. adaptation, the Japanese version has no connection to King of the Beasts GoLion. Three assault team units exist: Land, Air, and Sea. A total of fifteen components called "Rugger" can combine to form the super robot Dairugger. The design of these fifteen separate Rugger units was inspired by rugby, as a rugby union team consists of fifteen players. In the U.S. version, the "Galbeston Empire" was renamed the "Drule Empire," and a significant amount of violence and sexual content was edited out to make the show suitable for general audiences.

600 years after the events of Ginga Senpuu Braiger, Jupiter is destroyed, resulting in the emergence of numerous new planets and a wave of increased colonization. To address the growing lawlessness, Don Diego Condor assembles Billy the Shot, Samanosuke Dodi, Layla Minesato, and Shuteken Radcliffe—collectively known as J9-II. Operating Cosmo Bikes, they can merge them to form the robot Baxingar.

The story opens during a game of hide and seek when a boy named Justin Casey (Gen) finishes counting and starts looking for his friends Angela (often called "Angie") and Corkey Roberts (Kanna and Tsukubo Natsuyama). While searching for the siblings in a wooded area, a sudden storm breaks out. Justin manages to sneak up on the pair before the rain begins to pour, forcing them all to run for cover. They eventually find a house in the woods that Justin insists was never there before. After entering, the house initially seems empty until they discover a robot named Solar Ion Robot (Kadenchin), or SIR for short. Soon they meet the house's owner, Professor Humphrey Bumble (Dr. Tokio Taimu), who reveals his greatest invention: a time machine. The Professor's attempt to recreate Benjamin Franklin's famous lightning experiment by flying a kite outside the house to power the machine only results in a temporary personality change for SIR and sends the entire house hurtling into the past. Unaware of how long the journey home will take due to Professor Bumble's mistakes and miscalculations in time travel, the children nonetheless witness and take part—with little or no consequences—in numerous events from the New Testament, ranging from the birth of John the Baptist to the rise of the Apostle Paul.

Thunderbirds 2086 is set roughly two decades after the original series, commonly assumed to take place around 2065—though on-screen dates vary—and follows the adventures of the Thunderbirds, a rescue squad within the International Rescue Organisation. Unlike the original International Rescue, which was small and family-run, the IRO is a massive organization with many branches, overseen by the Federation, the 2086 version of the United Nations. No direct narrative links are established between the two series, though it is implied that the original International Rescue evolved into its 2086 counterpart over those thirty years. The Tracy family is never mentioned in this animated series. In the animated show, the team itself is called the Thunderbirds, whereas in the original the name only referred to their vehicles. Aside from this, the animated series closely resembles the original, with most episodes centered on natural or man-made disasters that the Thunderbirds must investigate and resolve. Unlike the original, Thunderbirds 2086 also features an ongoing storyline about a separatist group called the Shadow Axis, led by the mysterious Star Crusher. The series strongly hints that Star Crusher is not human and may be some kind of alien being.

Takeshi Yamato acquires the powers of the legendary Rainbow Warrior while in the Indian mountains, enabling him to transform into Rainbowman to prevent an alien invasion of Earth.

Based on the novel by Hatojuu Muku.